How do I stop having nightmares about school shootings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hesitate to post this as I don’t want to exacerbate OP’s fears, and it’s hard to know full stats because things are counted differently in different states, but death by gunshot is actually the second leading cause of death for young people in America. It is not all school shootings, but *some* level of concern here is not inconsistent with the facts.

In 2017, school shootings as a cause of death for kids age 5 to 18 ranked FAR behind car accidents, suffocation, poisoning, drowning, fire, falling, being cut, and being a pedestrian who gets hit and killed by a vehicle. About the same number of kids died on bicycles as died in school shootings. The vast majority of the gun deaths were not school shootings at all.

The level of concern demonstrated about school shootings is totally inconsistent with the facts.

If you don't have a gun in your house, you pretty much have nothing to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Rational fear = Impact (of an event) x Probability (of an event)

Actual fear = Impact x Probability x Dread

Dread is the horror, the unfairness, the unimaginability of an event happening. I understand your dread. This shouldn't be something we have to worry about.